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The Cast of ‘Welcome Back, Kotter’ Reunites on ‘GMA’

The cast of 'Welcome Back, Kotter' on 'GMA' from left: Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Robert Hegyes, John Travolta, Marcia Strassman and Gabe Kaplan (Photo: ABC)

The Sweathogs, together again, just like old times!

The entire cast of “Welcome Back, Kotter” – except for Arnold Horshack (Ron Palillo) – reunited Sunday night for the TV Land Awards and also got together for a segment on Monday’s “Good Morning America.”

The enthusiastic gang seemed as excited about the reunion as fans–it marked the 35-year anniversary of the sitcom, which ran from 1975 to 1979.

Find out why the Sweathogs thinks people still love the show all these years in the clip below.

“We’re still friends,” said Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, who played Freddie “Boom Boom” Washington, of the Kotter clan’s genuine affection for each other. “We got lucky.”

And yes, Vinnie Barbarino was there too, with John Travolta declaring the hit seventies sitcom “timeless” and admitting he’d never let his daughter date a Sweathog.

Travolta also took the opportunity to publicly thank Mr. Kotter (Gabe Kaplan) for putting them all on the map: “I’ve waited thirty-five years to thank this man,” Travolta said.

And if you’ve always wondered how Barbino’s classic catchphrase came about, wonder no more. “It was based on what [the kids] really said in Brooklyn in the 50s,” Kaplan said, explaining the original saying was cleaned up a bit for television and became known to us all as, “Up your nose with a rubber hose!”